The Rembis Report and Other Fascinating Topics - Volume XXXIX

I don’t binge watch TV.

Some folks enjoy piling television episodes one upon the next and watching several episodes a day for days in a row to view an entire series within a single week, but that is not for me. I like the slow burn. Episodes doled out weekly is what I grew up with and became accustomed to. But over the years, there became so much more to watch and so many ways to watch it, that priorities needed to be set to decide what would get watched and when. Most important to me is seeing a series in the order it was originally presented.

For most sitcoms it is not necessary to enjoy a few occasional reruns. You get a quick grasp of the characters, a simple story is presented in three act structure, and it resolves in 22 - 26 minutes. Easy-peasy. For long format dramatic series you generally want to see it from the start and watch the episodes in order so that you don’t wind up lost at some point, wondering Who is that guy? Where are they going? What is so important about that briefcase? Why are they talking about avocados? And things of that nature.

Then there are anthology series. Thematically structured to appeal to a wide range of audience members without the need for long form storytelling, anthologies generally offer a 30 - 60 minute thrill ride that may utilize comedy, mystery, or drama, with sometimes dystopian or nightmarish scenarios. Probably the best known of all, and closest example of where they all started, is The Twilight Zone. The franchise has seen several iterations over the years. The original was presented by Rod Serling on CBS from 1959 - 1964. Every week he delivered water cooler fodder that still stands the test of time. Each episode is a self-contained short story. You can watch one and be done. All episodes are not for everybody. But this series was definitely for me.

Since the series ended the year I was born, I grew up watching reruns. I recall many episodes, seeing them over and over, and know all my favorites by heart. Story, dialogue, actors, everything. As a child, I watched a lot of them, and as an adult, I would catch a few once in a while. Some I remembered, some I did not, so it must have been the first time I had seen those. A couple years ago I wondered if I had seen them all. To ensure that I had, I made it a point to go back and watch the entire series from beginning to end. I chose to accelerate my viewing to more than just an episode a week, but not more than once a day, and sometimes I skipped a few days in between shows. So, a bit over six months later, I had finally watched all 156 episodes in the order they were originally presented. It was brilliant.

I could go on and on, expounding on why it was such a great show. So much that I could probably write a book about it. But I am not going to do that. I want to talk about the one episode I consider the best.

I tried to watch the series with a blind eye. What I mean by that is, I tried to forget that I had ever seen any of them before. I put them out of my mind and to the best of my ability viewed each one as if it were entirely new to me. This is easier said than done, but in order to truly absorb what you are watching, to be honestly critical of it, to view it with wonder and awe as if you are witnessing something you have never seen for the very first time, it is necessary to try. There were a few I knew well enough that I had to just sit back and enjoy them again. There was no fighting my memory. Some episodes I can confirm that I had never seen before and there were more of them than I thought. My estimation is that about 30 of the episodes were entirely new to me or that I had forgotten them. Either way, I did not see an episode which I did not like.

Drum roll, please.

Wikipedia reports that my favorite episode was voted 3rd best of the series by Time magazine. In 1997 TV Guide ranked the episode number 31 on its 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time list. It has been referenced throughout pop culture, was parodied on The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror, and was chosen as one of the four stories for Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983. 

My favorite episode is It's a Good Life, starring Billy Mumy and Chloris Leachman.

I am guessing there is a good chance almost everyone reading this knows The Twilight Zone and has probably seen this episode, but if you are not part of the vast majority of people in the world who has heard of this show and recognizes what I have told you so far, please go find it and watch it now, because I am about to reveal spoilers. And I promise you, this show is worth watching.

In a nutshell, six-year-old Anthony Fremont possesses supernatural abilities and has destroyed the rest of the world because a lot of it bothered him, and because he could. The only life known is that of his family and the last residents of his small Ohio town. There is no electricity, no communication with anyone anywhere, because they are presumably all gone, wished away by Anthony. He is a monster.

Anthony can manifest creatures, like a three-headed gopher, from his mind, and make them disappear instantly. He can create television dinosaurs (low production value, he never went to film school) without any tools at all, and create food from thin air. Nothing of great nutritional value, junk food for dinner, but that is what Anthony likes. The few people he allows to live, his parents and a few others, survive by walking on eggshells at all times, careful to placate him to the best of their ability. Telling him that his food and television shows are the best. They must also make sure to only think happy thoughts because Anthony can read their minds. Any negativity is met with swift persecution and banishment. For those left, it is better to stay alive and live under his rule than to not exist.

But one man gets drunk and lets his tongue wag. He gets out of hand, calls Anthony a monster to his face, and challenges the other men in the room to step up behind him and bash him in the head so they can end this nightmare. He risks his life for the greater good. He is able and willing to be a martyr if he has to. If somebody would just kill Anthony it would all be over.

Alas, it is not to be. The man is unable to compel others to act. Everyone fears Anthony. 

Anthony’s eyes grow wide and his brow furrows. He points up and yells “You’re a bad man!” Everyone shudders as the man is transformed into a jack-in-the-box. Anthony’s father begs him to wish it away, into the cornfield, where so many others have gone before. Anthony does.

The acting is subtle and tremendous. All cast members give compelling and believable performances. Watching with a blind eye, I felt terror, and shook. No other episode had such an impact on me. It truly stands the test of time as a cautionary tale which exemplifies the proverb “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

But the drunk man was probably right. The only way to end that nightmare would have been to take out Anthony. It had to be up close and personal. It needed to be absolute.

This is what needs to be done with Vladimir Putin. Only the people close to him, who know what he is doing is wrong, who will risk their lives as martyrs and allies of his enemies, can kill him.

When I restarted this newsletter four weeks ago I did not know then that I would be competing with a Eurasian war for attention. This conflict, however, demands that we watch. In case you don’t realize it, nuclear war is a true possibility now. I am sad to have to say that. 

It is not just Vladimir Putin, but those close to him who have bought into his worldview. Putin is just as dangerous as Anthony Fremont because he has no sense of his own mortality. It is likely that he is thinking far outside the box of conventional wisdom where you reap what you sow. The future is not on his radar. Whatever future he sees is a twisted vision because, like Anthony, he only knows what he likes and does not like, and does what he wants, consequences be damned. He is not thinking about his legacy or his life in terms of life and death. He has no vision of his own death, just like Anthony, he is unable to conceive such a thing. A person who gets away with everything thinks they are immortal.

You have heard stories about Putin. Some say he lives in his own world, a fantasy land of his own creation, one where bad news is met swiftly with punishment. This is probably true. And when somebody is tasked with delivering bad news, they do so at their own risk. But Putin is not the only threat here. He has a close knit group of followers who surround him. Constituents who drank his Kool-Aid. Those hearing only what he says and nothing more are left with little options. If they hear that Nazis have taken over Ukraine and Russia is liberating the people there, and that is all they hear, they must rely on a gut level response that what they are hearing are lies, when they have no way to confirm anything.

Not everyone in Russia supports Putin. I am certain the vast majority of Russians are good people who want peace. Most would never support this war. Many Russians who protest are silenced. Some, in rural areas may have no idea that this war is even happening. But for those who do know, you have those who have not been sold on dominating other nations, and those who have.

These are the most dangerous. Behind Putin, there are others following and protecting him. In addition to being able to destroy him, the coup must be ready to destroy all those around him. It has to be up close and personal. It has to be Russians who topple him to stop this war and save the world.

I know that's all heavy stuff. Like I said, it is hard to compete with this war for attention. I find that I have studied it more than I ever intended, and for the foreseeable future, I will have more to say.

News we get varies from outlet to outlet. In addition to good old ABC, CBS, and NBC, we now have Fox, Cheddar, NewsMax, CNBC, Al Jazeera, BBC, USA Today, The Times, The Post, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, Time, tons of information streaming on Twitter, and Russian State media, just to name a few. That is a lot of information to sift through. What is true and what is not? What is exaggerated? What is an outright lie?

I have theories and ideas on all of this that I plan to share. I can’t do it tonight, but I will have more to consider in coming weeks, not just about the war, but about everything.

Please keep opening my newsletter emails, forward them along if you think they have merit and you know somebody who may like to read them. Right now the clock is ticking toward my self-imposed deadline. (Wednesday nights at 9:30)

Thanks again for reading this edition. I also want to let you know that I have published the first 36 volumes as The Rembis Report - An Observation. It will be released next Friday, April 1st, 2022, a full 16 years since I emailed the first one. I know some of you read all of those, but for those who haven't, if you want to read it, I appreciate your support. Click this link to order a copy.

I will be back next week with more observations. In the meantime, watch the news, and the Russian state run media, so you will know as much as you can about what everyone is saying, and make your own informed decisions.

And please don't drink the Kool-Aid.